A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere...

Last week I had teacher training at my school across town every morning. On my commute Tuesday morning, I heard the DJ from my favorite radio station announce, "Caller 10 wins Death Cab for Cutie tickets." So I called. And I won!! I put a few of Death Cab for Cutie's songs on my sidebar in case some of you aren't familiar with them.

As part of winning the concert tickets, I won a tour of the Neon Boneyard with the bass player from the band. The Neon Boneyard is a place where they have a lot of old Las Vegas signs that used to be on the Strip and downtown. I've really wanted to go to the Neon Boneyard since it opened, so between the concert and the Neon Boneyard tour, I was doubly excited!

Here are some signs from the Las Vegas of my childhood:

This is me with the other winners and the bass player. At the concert, we picked a place to stand, and we randomly ended up right next to the winner in the white hat and also by my friend Halli from high school.

The Showboat was right off the 95 freeway by my house. It was later bought by a family we know, and they renamed it Castaways. It didn't do well and was eventually imploded.

I'm not sure what hotel this hat went with, but I remember it spinning in the air at one of the downtown hotels. Fitzgerald's, maybe?

This is the face from the Treasure Island back before they changed it into the stupid TI. I hate the new Sirens show and everything else that came with the new TI.

The Flamingo's old sign

I wanted a candid with the bass player, and this is the one I got. He's the bearded guy. He took tons of pictures while we were at the Neon Boneyard. I was reading the insert of Death Cab's new CD, and he was the photographer for the cover art and some other pictures in the album.

Caesar's Palace's old sign

another Binion's Horseshoe sign

This is Mr. Nick Harmer, the bass player for Death Cab for Cutie.

Here he is with me and my guest Harley. Harley is one of my former students. She loves music more than I do, which is saying a lot, and she's also an amazing musician. She plays the guitar and bass, among other instruments, so she was really excited to meet him.

I love Harley because even though she was born in 1993, she listens to all of the awesome 90s music that I listened to in high school. She also likes all of the same pop music that I like. Our musical tastes are almost identical. I promised her at the end of the school year that we would go to a concert together over the summer, so when I won these tickets, she was the first person I called.

The concert was at the Cosmopolitan hotel. They drained the pool and built a stage at the end of it, and that's where the band played. The lead singer said that it was the weirdest place he'd ever done a concert. The music wasn't super loud because we were outside, and because the pool is on the 4th floor, we had a fun view of the Planet Hollywood and Paris hotels.

Adele was also doing a concert inside the hotel, so the place was a mess with traffic and people, but the Death Cab concert was amazing. There are some bands that I love more after seeing them live, and this band is definitely one of them. The lead singer played the guitar, piano, and drums, the guitar player played the guitar, piano, and the bass, and the bass player took a turn playing the guitar. The only member of the band that didn't switch instruments was the drummer. It was fun to watch them all trade instruments, and they put on a really great show. I would love to see them again sometime. Next time I'll try to convince my anti-concert husband to go with me!

Shark Reef x 2

Another field trip my ward organized this summer was trip to the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay. I hadn't been there in years, so I was really excited for this one. Who cares if my kids wanted to go!

These pictures are from the end of the field trip. The tour guide took us in this classroom to discuss fish and sharks a little more with the kids.

The Saturday after the field trip, we went to the Shark Reef again to meet up with our friends the Howeys who were in town for the weekend. This time Kevin and Braden got to go (it was just me the the older two kids on the church field trip). Braden loved it! He kept trying reach for the fish along the outside of the glass. I kind of missed our tour guide during this second trip. It was nice to have someone give us more details about the fish and sharks. But we still had fun the second time!

Speaking of my ward's summer calendar...

Today the kids and I went on a tour of the Clark County fire station near our house.

My friend Holly's husband is a Clark County fireman, so he led us on the tour, which started with a look at the engine. This particular station came to our ward's 4th of July party a few weeks ago with the engine and the hose, so my kids were excited to see it again.

One fireman showed the process of putting on all of the 70+ pounds of gear. These guys have to wear this getup in 110 degree weather sometimes here in Las Vegas!

We took a tour of the inside of the station, and of course, the kids each got to spray the hose.

I took these pictures from Heather and Holly in my ward. I should remember to take my camera wherever I go with the kids, but honestly it's the last thing I think about when I am trying to get me and all three of them out of the house on time. We plan on going out to Mountain Springs, Nevada tomorrow to do the next scheduled activity, but chances are I won't get pictures of that either. Maybe I'll put the camera in my purse right now while it's on my mind...

I love my ward and this summer calendar the sisters organized. There's no pressure to go to the activities. My kids and I go when we wake up and there's not anything that needs to be done that day. It's nice to know there's always something fun we can go do!

Our Summer So Far

My kids want to do this every day:

That's a hose attached to the trampoline so that the kids get sprayed while they're jumping. It's the only way they can use the tramp during the summer since the top of it gets so hot from the sun.

I don't know what's up with the silly faces. I guess when the camera comes out, that means it's time to ham it up.

I've been trying to do at least one fun activity with the kids every day, even if it means a drive to the store or to get a treat. My ward set up an awesome summer calendar of activities, and sadly we've been to two of them. I've had three former students taking summer school math classes, so their parents hired me as a tutor to help them pass. That's what I've been doing almost every morning for the whole month of July. The extra money has been great, but in return my kids are missing out on some fun stuff. I've definitely learned my lesson for next summer: no tutoring. My summer will be spent with my kids, especially since William will be going into kindergarten after next summer. Ahhh!

We did go on a very short trip to Provo/Spanish Fork/Salem, Utah at the beginning of July. My dad is the youngest by 13 years in his family, and I am the youngest by 17 years in my family, so I had an 83-year-old uncle - Uncle Fred - who passed away on the 4th of July. My childhood was spent in Spanish Fork/Salem with my Grandmas Creer and Ficklin, and my Grandma Ficklin's house was on the same property as my Uncle Fred's house in Salem. It's been years since I've been up there, so it was so nice to go up and see my extended family who I only get to see on blogs and Facebook.

We basically got to Provo, ate at Los Hermanos (which has moved! but we found it), swam, got up the next morning for the viewing, funeral, and luncheon, and went home immediately after. It would have been nice to spend more time there, but visiting with family I hadn't seen in a while really made our short trip a great one.

At the luncheon my dad and Uncle Royce were asked to share some memories of their oldest brother, which was great because those two never talk about themselves or their childhoods. My dad shared how he thought he only had one brother until he was about 6 years old. My Uncle Fred joined the army at age 17 when my dad was 4, so my dad never remembered having my uncle around. My dad was sitting at the kitchen table one day, and a man came walking in, and my dad said, "Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?" And the man said, "I'm your oldest brother!" My dad also talked about how it was my Uncle Fred who got the whole family to move from Gonzales, Louisiana to Salem, Utah. My dad said, "We're all here today because of Fred," and he's right. I might be living in the south if it weren't for my uncle.

My Uncle Royce said something that I thought was interesting. He said that his dad told him, my dad, and Uncle Fred that they were to marry Mormon girls. What's funny about this is that my Grandma Ficklin was Catholic when she married my grandpa, and he was Mormon. She eventually converted, but I wonder if the journey to get her to join the church was difficult. My dad and uncles all married Mormon girls who lived within about a mile radius of Salem, Utah, so the move to Utah was definitely good for that reason.

I'm sorry this post got super long, but I really want to remember some of the things that my dad and Uncle Royce had to say at the funeral. I loved hearing both of them get up and share their stories.

I hope everyone else is having an awesome summer!!

Kindergarten Grad

Rebecca graduated from kindergarten this past Thursday. In the morning she and her classmates attended a small ceremony at school to celebrate graduation.

I'm sure it's not good etiquette to take pictures while others are reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, but I couldn't resist.

This is Rebecca's teacher this year Mrs. Thomas, aka my sister Jodi. She didn't start out as Rebecca's teacher, but after her first teacher started to flake out on her responsibilities, my sister took over. I and all of the other parents of the kids in the class are so grateful to my sister for stepping in and making this year a productive one.

Rebecca received the award for being the top speller. She got 100% on every spelling test she was given in class.

She loved having my sister as her teacher. She even called her Mrs. Thomas instead of Aunt Jodi.

The ceremony ended with the class doing a recitation of a poem called "I'm Thankful".

I've been so grateful to have Rebecca start school at American Heritage Academy. I love that Christian principles are incorporated into her education. One of many things I learned at BYU is that secular knowledge and spiritual knowledge can go together, and she is learning that right at the start of her schooling.

If I had extra money to pay for private school, we would keep her there indefinitely. She's able to be there now because I work there. I've committed to one more year at the school, so she'll stay for first grade, but after that I'll be back to staying at home. It's just not the right time for me to be a working mom.

But for now, we will enjoy the school while we can!

It's been a really good month so far.

We started off the month of May with a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese for William and my nephew Spencer. Their birthdays are two weeks apart, so my sister and I always have a combined party for them.

The birthday boys: William and Spencer

And the guests:

Everyone played games:

I sometimes think using my tongue, so he gets this from me.

There were lots of presents:

hockey gloves from Uncle Bryan that William has been wearing every day since his party

We had cupcakes:

And we ended the night by fishing Braden out of a game he climbed into:

I guess he really wanted to play with the balls inside the game.

It was a great party. Hopefully the boys enjoyed it too. Happy 4th birthday, William and Spencer!

The month continued being great!

Monday Evening: After the birthday party, I rushed over to Oyshi Sushi to have dinner with Kellie, Brook, and Julie - three of my favorite people in the whole world.

Tuesday through Friday: I went to work the next day to find out that it was teacher appreciation week. I got a nice breakfast on Tuesday, some cute sunglasses from our principal on Thursday, and candy, cards, and a Viva Mercados gift certificate from some of my students on Friday. I have a student whose parents own Viva Mercados, and he gives me a gift certificate for every special occasion. And Kevin and I always go to lunch and spend those gift certificates the day I get them.

Saturday: I got to go to a wedding on Saturday, and I love weddings.

These two gorgeous people got married in the Las Vegas Temple.

At the Temple:

At the reception:

At the reception, the men wore kilts, except for Shane who said a kilt and his tall skinny frame combined would make him look like a teeange girl. Kristi was smart and got a bounce house for the kids to play in, and it was a HIT with all of the kids and even some of the adults. There was great food and good music, and except for the crazy wind, it was a great day for a party.

We're so happy for Bryan and Kristi. Congratulations to the latest Mr. and Mrs. Bowman!